This habit tends to receive raised eyebrows in response (especially if I ask someone to consider for a moment how amazing refrigerators are!).

I had a recent discussion with my stepson (who is 31 years old). where I explained what it was like growing up in the 70's with only three TV channels, no smartphones and no internet.

Looking to the future, I'm sure that AI will be at the forefront - but I wonder what the next big thing will be?

It's hard to predict things. Especially the future. I recently heard a discussion about what tech people thought the internet would be, and even that was very off base (It was going to be TV 2.0. They didn't consider regular people being the main creators--they thought it would be professionals making content for consumers.)

I just hope the future gives us more solutions than problems. It seems the answers to some big dilemmas (hunger, disease) could be possible. But is there a solution for greed?

Exo skeletons have started to be used to help mobility for the handicapped, and to prevent injuries in industry.  Athletes who have prosthesis but wish to compete against able bodied athletes have to be evaluated to see if their artificial parts give them an unfair advantage.

A lot of our tech infrastructure is built on people who were there at the ground level in the 1960s and 1970s and then the Gen-Xers who built upon those foundations.  Some earlier Millennials are able to provide continuity beyond that but for later and beyond, I feel there's an ever widening knowledge gap for not just current and new technology but past as well. And as Boomers and Gen-Xers age out of the workforce, we've setup an environment with less people to do maintenance-type jobs, much less know how to do them.  

With the reduced work force, companies will be relying on outsourcing who will rely on AI with predicably devastating consequences.